rachel – 15104 & 60212 • COMPUTATION for CREATIVE PRACTICES

Final Project: Road Trip

For my project I created a simple game that is visually appealing. The location of the sun/moon is based of of real time hours and minutes. This allows the game has to have a day mode, with corresponding colors and clouds, as well as a night mode, with colors and stars. The layers of the landscape also have a slight parallax effect in relation to the location of the mouse. The game-play aspect of the game is simple: collect coins and press the up-arrow to avoid the trees. Sound was also incorporated into the program, indicating when the car is flying or when a coin has been collected. (Sound removed from WordPress version, but full version on autolab)

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Project Proposal

For my project, I would like to create a moving landscape that a creature interacts with. This would be a game similar to classic 2D games (like Mario), but I will be focusing on the aesthetics of the game, rather than points or some other type of gameplay. This game will be more of a 2d representation of a walk through a beautiful landscape and is meant to be a relaxing experience for the user. Some of my ideas to employ are: making multiple layers of landscape to add a realistic element to the project, changing the location (or type of landscape) when a certain key is clicked, the creature jumping and changing color and size when it hits certain objects, and the sky and corresponding colors change with the actual time of day. Physics function will probably have to be used ignorer to make the movement of the creature more fluid.

Looking Outwards

Two projects that I find very interesting and relate to my final project are parallax.js and the game Alto’s Adventure.

parallax.js is a JavaScript project by Matthew Wagerfeild & Claudio Guglieri. It holds a library of images on several layers that are adjusted depending on the location of the mouse or, for devices with motion sensors, the tilt of the screen. These elements, mixed with some physics and beautiful light design, results in a simple but impressive project.

Alto’s Adventure is a game developed by Harry Nesbitt, along with Ryan Cash and Jordan Rosenberg, as Nesbitt’s first experiment with UnityScript. The game features beautiful landscapes and well applied physics.

Both of these projects relate to my project in that they made aesthetically appealing landscapes using just code. In particular, the lighting effects in both projects are amazing and complete the dreamy atmosphere of both projects.

Looking outwards 10

The Horticultural Spa, by Rachel Wingfield and Mathias Gmachi of Loop.pH, is a project that revamps concepts of the past to create an unique experience. The project aims to accomplish what the Roman baths of old did: create an intimate, relaxing, social space. The bath idea is translates into the form of herbal scented fog. This is made even more relaxing by the presence of music and plants. The social side of the project is also to teach people ways to reduce consumption of water that perhaps they had not considered before. In particular, it is showing people the benefits of communal consumption of water, as opposed to individual.

Project 10

the creature is fed from the box and grows each time. it also blinks when the mouse is down.

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Project 09

My project is similar to the snake games. The direction of the turtle is changed by the arrow keys. There is also a new secret message on each refresh!

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loooooooking outwaaaaards

In the Looking Outwards from September 24th, Kelly Li wrote about Jean-Pierre Aube, who developed a project called Electrosmog. Using radios and antennas, Aube measures the electromagnetic fields of the city. This data is then translated into a visual display, over top pictures and sounds of the city. In this way, Aube is able to capture the unseen but very active digital side of the city. I agree with Kelly that this project is so interesting as it displays activity that we normally would never be able to see.

Here is Kelly’s Looking Outwards:
here
and to the project’s page:
here

Project 08

My portrait is based off of a picture of my sister. One ellipse follows the exact x and y coordinates of the mouse, while other random ellipses pop up within a constraint around the mouse’s location. I choose to use this method as I wanted to keep the precision of having a small shape, but speed up the process a bit. The random ellipses also help mask the irregular nature of the mouse path.

Here is a picture of one possible result:

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looking outwards

The keynote address I choose to listen to was Brave New Now by Liam Young. Liam Young is an architect that contemplates what the future city will look like. This talk in particular is looking at the question “What is the city in a digital/technology dominant world?” Young also runs a think tank called Tomorrows Thoughts Today, which studies where the future is heading and how these speculations that can effect ideas today. One of Young’s ways of finding “the future” is through his group Unknown fields. This is a group of people that go all over the world looking for overlooked and unique landscapes and spaces. Tying this all back to Liam Young’s talk, Brave New Now is the name of his project where he has created many virtual experiences of future cities. This was done by looking at current emerging conditions all over the world and exaggerating them in order to picture what the future may look like.

Project 5

My project is a small part of a hypotrochoid. The points and line follow the code.

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